


Real Gourmet Vanilla

by SharpestRose



Category: Popslash
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-01
Updated: 2011-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 22:05:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Britney despairs over bling jewellery, Lance and Joey do non-vanilla things in bars, Chris and Justin behave like children, JC gets huffy and makes people recite song titles, and sex is had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Real Gourmet Vanilla

It began, as so many things do, with a redhead. 

She was beautiful, a sort of teenybopper Jessica Rabbit, all pout and hip shimmy and smoky allure. 

"Wow, she's all that." was Justin's comment. "Almost too good to be real." 

Which seemed an odd thing to say, but true enough. 

Chris never knew her name, but learnt the line of her body, her hourglass curves ingrained behind his eyelids as he watched her dance. The club was small and full of lit cigarettes, a bad atmosphere for throats and voices, and as she sang every night of drinking and crying and walking home in the cold were there in her words. 

After her set Joey was there by the bar to buy her a Jack and coke and listen to her deep laugh in close to his ear, and beside Chris JC made a small disappointed noise. Chris could relate, this woman was chocolate and silk and sex on stiletto heels. 

In the end, she left with Lance, but Joey seemed unperturbed by this, riding back to the hotel with the others. 

"If it were me, I'd be ready to pop him one." Justin informed the world at large. 

"Yeah, but it's not you. You'd never even have an inside chance." Joey replied without animosity. 

Chris didn't think of it again, until two cities later and a blonde, who sat between Lance and Joey all night, flirting and dancing with both, her pants riding low on her slim hips and her glossed lips glinting wet under the strobe light. 

Joey was the victor this time, which surprised everyone because Lance had been really into her, hands on her skin all evening, glitter still dusted on his fingertips. 

"Win some, lose some." he shrugged with a smile that was almost a smirk, and that's when Chris got suspicious. 

He watched carefully on the following three occasions, brunette-brunette-blonde, how both of them would concentrate on one girl, one eventually going home alone. With the blonde, Justin and JC were watching too, so Chris knew he wasn't imagining things when he saw Lance lick across her lips and then Joey kiss her seconds later. 

"Um." JC coughed. "Anyone else see that?" 

"I've gotta go call Brit. She wanted me to get in touch tonight." Justin gulped, exiting the club so fast JC and Chris couldn't help laughing. 

"Poor thing's scarred." Chris snorted. 

"Considering therapy myself." JC said dryly. "I mean, I can see you and me doing something like that, because we're, like, freaks. But Lance and Joe? They're my personal proof that boybands can be vanilla." 

"Except that time Joe went with those twins, or Lance with the handcuff lady." Chris pointed out. 

"Well, that's vaguely vanilla. Vanilla with topping. This is... mint? Banana?" 

"I think you're overreacting, mister digital getdown." 

She went with Lance. Chris thought JC would say something to Joey, but the ride back was quiet save for the splitter-splat-hiss of the rain on the windscreen wipers. 

\- 

Next morning was chaos, hotel-breakfast-and-bored-JC style. He had the bowls held high above his head, Justin tapping his foot with a scowl. 

"I'm not fucking saying it. Gimme the fucking bowls." 

"You want them, you say it." 

"Fuck you." Justin flopped down into his seat. Chris sighed. 

"Jayce, if I say it, will you give over?" 

"Nope. Has to be someone who's not you. Just, you're breakfast's only hope. Six. Now." 

"Dare I ask?" Lance wandered in, one eyebrow quirked. 

"JC's a fucker." 

"How eloquent, Justin." Lance sighed. "How many?" 

"Six." Chris answered. "C'mon, Lance, do it, I wanna eat." 

"It has to be Justin." JC insisted. 

"No, you said it had to be someone who wasn't me. Lance, are we, in actual fact, clones? No? Then please release our crockery from this hostage situation." 

"Fine... it's tearing up my heart and it makes me ill, this I promise you. Um, so, you drive me crazy when you don't gimme the stupid bowls. Bye bye bye." 

"That was only five." JC grinned. "No soup for you." 

Just then Joey crept up behind him, grabbing the bowls out of his hands and distributing them to a round of applause. 

"You've been in Chris' wacky stash or something, dude." Justin informed JC, pouring milk over his cereal. "Shit, this is that crappy concentrated hotel milk crap. Can't we ever get real food?" 

"Excuse me? I would never do anything so juvenile." Chris thwacked Justin upside the head. "I'd make you do Backstreet titles instead." 

Joey sat down beside Lance, bitching about the coffee as Justin had about the milk. Lance nodded in agreement and then passed Joey a small box, about the size of a packet of cigarettes. A tape from a camcorder. Joey pocketed it and then turned, laughing as Justin threatened to pour a glass of orange juice over JC's head. 

Chris filed the information away, waiting for more of the puzzle to fall into place. 

\- 

"They tape themselves and then the other watches? That's gross." Justin shook his head. "You're tripping. You and Josh I can see doing something bent like that, but those two? No way." 

"That's what I said." JC agreed. "But I'm starting to wonder." 

"We'd have to see a tape to know for sure." Chris pointed out. 

"I guess." Justin nodded. "But how would we get it?" 

"You know what?" JC stood. "You guys have your little Nancy Drew mystery. I don't buy it, Lance listens to country music. He's as ordinary and vanilla as people come. That thing at the club wasn't what it looked like, and even if it was it's none of our business. I'm not going to snoop around in my friends' sex lives." 

Justin and Chris exchanged a glance. 

"He's got a point. Hate to admit it, but he does." Justin sighed. 

"Yeah. Wanna go order random shit from room service and make sculptures?" 

\- 

After that, Chris tried to ignore Joey and Lance's strange behaviour, though he noticed the camcorder tape being pass several more times. Then they both went with one of the girls, another redhead as coincidence would have it, and Justin's jaw almost hit the floor. JC pretended not to see, and Chris just smirked. 

"Do you think they all do it at once? Or one watches?" Justin asked as the three of them left the club. 

"I think we should mind our own fucking business." 

"Fuck you, Chasez. It's just a question." 

"Both of you shut up!" Chris shouted. "I'm thinking." 

"Wow, call the papers." 

"Fuck you. I think what's going on... ah, fuck it, you jerks don't deserve to hear it." 

"No, I wanna hear." 

"I don't. If you're going to start with this crap again I'm going somewhere else." 

As JC walked off Justin's cellphone rang, the tune was _The Real Slim Shady_ , which Chris had thought entirely hilarious when he'd programmed it one night as Justin slept. Three months later it was decidedly less funny, Justin had refused to change it. 

"'sup? Hey Brit... we're heading back now, actually... yeah, come over, that'd be cool." 

"W-H-I-DOUBLE-P-E-D." Chris spelled out in a singsong voice, loudly. Justin rolled his eyes. 

"Brit says fuck you too." 

"Such language! Tell her I'm disappointed in her, she should set a better fucking example." 

\- 

With no cameras around, Britney slouched around in a baseball shirt and cargo pants, her hair in a ratty ponytail. They sat around drinking the minibar and idly flicking channels on the tv. 

"I swear, you two wear each other's clothes. She steals your pants, you use her tops for bandannas." 

"You're just pissy because my panties would never fit you." Britney sniped with a grin. "So where's everyone else?" 

"JC's off having a hissy fit, Joe and Lance are having a threesome with some random groupie." 

Britney choked on her strawberry liqueur and lemonade. "What?" 

"We don't know that for sure." Chris shot a glare at Justin. "But probably. I got a theory about it, too." 

"Oh yeah? Tell." 

"Ok, there's this thing called triangulation of desire. When two people are attracted to each other but acting on those feelings is inappropriate, they'll both fixate on a third object or person. Because then, in the context of that third thing, it's ok. So Joey and Lance couldn't just go fuck, because they're both straight, well straightish anyway, but if they watch each other fuck a girl it's ok. Transferring the inappropriate desire to an available appropriate outlet." 

"Ooooh, yer a smart cookie, Kirkpatrick." Justin nodded. 

"What, so they're doing with these girls what Wade and Justin do with me?" 

"Brit!" 

"Just calling it like I see it, honey." 

Chris was rolling on the floor laughing. "I don't think I want to know anything about that, thanks all the same." 

"She's full of shit. She and Wade don't... right?" 

"Don't worry, Justin. I'm not screwing around." 

"I thought you were staying a virgin until you were married." Chris leered. "So when's the happy occasion?" 

"I'm not marrying this boy! Can you imagine the ring? I'd have a fucking bling on my finger." 

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna marry you either." Justin sulked. Britney hugged him, kissing his cheek. 

"Aw, sweetie, I'm just teasing. I know you don't wanna do Wade." she turned to Chris and mouthed 'much'. 

\- 

Next morning JC was still doing his holier-than-thou bit by only talking to Lance and Joey, who were looking smug and sated. Justin took the silent treatment hard, hunching over his meal with a wounded expression and complaining about processed fake food. Chris chose to pointedly ignore JC's pissy attitude, singing loudly and getting a grudging smile for his efforts. 

He wondered if they'd videotaped it, what the camera would have seen. Joey would have been behind the girl; he loved the androgynous line of backs, the soft silk of long hair. Chris knew that, just as he knew Lance's fascination with the way the female body looked so different to the male when nude. So Lance facing the girl, Joey behind. Did they touch only her? When she woke in the morning and crept out of the room, did they unconsciously curl around each other, Joey against Lance's back with one arm reaching around to rest on his stomach, protective by nature? Did they pull away upon waking or smile sleepily and steal a few minutes of closeness before the day began? 

Chris swallowed, looked down at his cereal, and forced himself to stop thinking about it. 

\- 

Next time Justin mentioned the situation JC didn't get huffy, just buried his face in a magazine and didn't say a word. Chris wasn't fooled for a second. 

"You know something!" 

"Yes, that you're a juvenile." 

"Nuh-uh, you know something about the sex, lies and videotape." 

"I don't recall any lies." JC said, his face completely innocent. 

"You bastard!" Justin all but jumped on him. "What do you know?" 

"Like I said, you're a pair of twelve year olds, only not really because real twelve-year-olds know how to amuse themselves without resorting to vicarious voyeurism." 

"So suddenly we're the voyeurs? The only two members of this group currently not videotaping intercourse or writing songs about internet pornography and somehow _we_ are the perverted ones?" 

"Can you drop it already?" 

Justin and Chris thought about it. 

"Nope. Fess up. Or I'm going to assume the worst." Chris smiled. "Forget vanilla, unless you inform me otherwise I'm going to assume they're, like, double fudge with chopped nuts." 

JC couldn't hold back his laugh. "You're sick." 

"Yeah, pretty much. Now, what do you know and how?" 

"For starters, Justin can get off me right now or I'll tell them how interested the two of you are in their personal business." 

Justin dutifully climbed off his position sitting on JC, standing beside Chris as they waited for answers. 

"They don't videotape anything smutty. How fucking stupid do you think they are, that sort of tape could cause all shades of shit. It's just the girls stripping, and they're all overage." 

"So why does only one of them go back each time, and then both the other night?" Justin asked. JC sighed. 

"I only asked about the tape because that's potentially dangerous. The rest is none of our business, and I'm not going to talk about any of this again, ok?" 

"Whatever. I'm going dancing with Brit and Wade. And don't fucking smirk at me, Kirkpatrick, or I'll fucking pop a cap in your ass." 

\- 

They all ended up going out, some dive that none of them would have given a second glance if the routine of touring wasn't so repetitive and strangely energising and exhausting simultaneously. 

Joey and Lance began to move in on a compact dark-haired woman, and Chris found himself anticipating the rhythm and lulls of their behaviour. He hadn't realised he'd been watching so closely. 

JC shot him a glare and shook his head. Chris shrugged, heading over to the bar. When he came back, Lance and Joey were sitting at the table with JC, sans girl. Chris raised his eyebrows but didn't comment, and after a second Lance leaned over to him and said "Come to my room tonight and you can see what's been going on." 

Joey was trying not to laugh. "There's something deeply unwholesome about the thought of you and Justin discussing our sex lives. Just so you know." 

\- 

When JC had said the video was of girls stripping, Chris had envisaged something raunchy, but there were no garter belts or poles to dance around. Just women, the sultry redhead and the willowy blonde and all the rest, carefully removing their clothes and standing in front of the camera, some nervous and blushing, others proud and unselfconscious. 

"These are our fans, man." Joey explained, talking as the image onscreen changed from girl to girl. "They're real people with real bodies - see, this one's too skinny, and this one has a tattoo on her hip, and this one's got freckles - and lives, and all this stuff we don't know about, and at the concerts there are thousands of them, not just a sea of screams but real people. I don't know, I just think it's sexy as hell." 

"It is." JC breathed, sitting beside Lance on the edge of the bed. "I sort of knew what you were doing but to actually see it... you guys are geniuses." 

"Aw, shucks." Lance said half-sarcastically. "I can't really take credit, it was Joe's idea. To see a part of the crowd we don't get to meet at soundchecks, the people behind the 'oh my god's and the 'please sign this'-es." 

"Yeah, and you slept with them too, didn't you?" Chris shook his head with a soft smile. "Neither of you like using groupies so this was a way to pretend that it wasn't just them getting the chance to have sex with 'N Sync and you getting a warm pliant body in your bed for a few hours." 

Lance blushed, Joey looked down at his hands. 

"No, don't feel bad, I didn't mean it like that. It's... well, it's really sweet I guess." Chris shot a glance and JC. "Real gourmet vanilla." 

\- 

Justin was unenthused by the explanation when Chris recounted it. 

"That's it?!" 

"You're got no poetry in your soul, Timberlake." JC said with a slight sneer. "I thought it was hot. And beautiful." 

"But they're fucking, right? Joey and Lance?" 

"We're not asking them if they're fucking, for the last time!" JC snapped, scowling. 

\- 

Even though he seemed to think little of the scheme, Chris noticed that Justin seemed to take the idea to heart, he started asking fans their names when he signed things and if they had good seats for the show, if they'd driven a long way, what other music they liked. 

"I think it's cool, what you're doing." Chris told him, and Justin grinned. 

JC started hanging out with Joey and Lance more, the three of them would share a bus and then meet up with Chris and Justin at their destination wearing secretive smiles. 

"Between you and Britney and Wade, and those three, everyone's having group sex but me." Chris complained. 

"You are a deviant." Justin informed him. "A freakish deviant. I'm not even gonna bother telling you how wrong you are about me and Brit and Wade." then he paused. "You really think JC's part of their weird sex thing?" 

"We don't actually know that there's any weird sex going on in the first place. And yes." Chris shrugged. "Probably." 

\- 

Justin, king of tact, finally asked Lance outright. 

"Have you ever fucked any of the guys?" 

"Maybe. Maybe not. Why the hell should I tell you?" Lance was unruffled by the question, a smile skating across the corners of his mouth. 

"Because I asked." 

"Yeah, well, if I asked you if Britney gave good head you wouldn't answer that, would you?" 

\- 

"I think it's about love. They're all pretty down to earth guys, even JC the space cowboy." Chris theorised to Justin as their bus rumbled through the night. "The whole thing with the girls on the video, that's about making sex mean something. This is too. Big meaningful orgies. Because, I mean, who else is really real in our lives except the people in our weird little world? Who else have you hung out with except me and Britney and Wade and the guys, in the last six months? In the last year? The more people you meet, the less you know." 

"Dude, are you cracking onto me?" 

"Yes, Justin Timberlake. I desire your hot body and feel the need to perform unspeakable acts on you. And, oh, yeah, you've got a pretty mouth." 

"You're so weird." 

\- 

Minutes before they were due onstage, Justin stood beside Lance in the backstage area, the pair of them listening to the roar of the crowd. 

"Yes." said Justin. 

"What?" 

"Yes. You asked if Britney gives good head." 

"I didn't ask. I asked if you'd answer if I asked." 

"Oh, well, I guess that's a yes as well." 

"Ok." Lance shrugged. "Mine's yes, too." 

"Joey?" 

"Yeah." 

"JC?" 

"Yeah." 

"Do they -" 

"Yeah." 

"Are you going to answer every question I ask with a yeah?" 

Lance grinned, relieved that Justin was smiling. 

"Yeah." 

"How come JC's so," Justin made a face. "about it then?" 

"Because you're pretty crass sometimes. Jayce is kinda a romantic, he doesn't like it when you say we're fucking." 

"Should I call it making luuurve then?" Justin lisped, his wrist limp. Lance smacked him on the back of the head. 

"Try it and I'll beat you down." 

"Is it, though?" 

"Love?" Lance ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Not many people I care about in this world like I care about you guys." 

Curtain call. They began to make their way to their starting positions. 

"You love me and Chris as much as you love them?" 

"Of course, you dork." 

Lance flashed a final smile and then they belonged to the world for a few hours. 

\- 

"They are." Justin said later, back on the bus. 

"Fucking?" 

"We're, um, not supposed to call it that." 

"'kay." Chris nodded. "Hey, do you think there's a yoyo anywhere on this bus?" 

"That's it? You've got nothing else to say?" 

"Well, it's kinda selfish they didn't include us, I guess you're not invited because of the 2.4 kids in your future with Wade and Britney, but they could've asked me." Chris said, clutching at his heart as if gravely wounded. 

"You'd do that, seriously?" 

"Will you freak out if I say yes?" 

"No." 

"Yes." 

Justin grinned. "If y'all took polaroids we could sell them." 

"There is nobody on this planet who would want to see that." 

Justin quirked an eyebrow, grin growing wider. 

"Well, nobody I'd ever want to let within a hundred feet of my person, anyway." Chris amended. Justin looked down. "You! You wanna see that! The same man who said it was gross when we thought Joey and Lance were trading sex tapes!" 

"'s different. That was gross because sex with groupies is nasty, and it turns out that was the whole point, getting rid of that nastiness." 

"Justin Randall Timberlake, when did you go from an innocent child to a person who wishes to see members of his group have sex?" 

"Probably had something to do with meeting you, freak. You're the one who wants to join them. How come you're giving me all this teasing when you're more guilty than I am?" 

"Because everyone knows I'm a freak, dipshit. You're the sweet innocent baby." 

Justin rolled his eyes, tapping a beat on his leg as they sat in silence. 

"You know, we should just say it. Tell them 'guys, I wanna join in and Justin wants to watch'." 

"Oh, classy." 

"Why not? Next hotel, I'll do it. I won't even call it fucking or anything." Chris vowed. 

\- 

Justin didn't see the actual proposition, he'd lingered with the small cluster of committed fans outside. Actually seeing them, not just giving a blank smile and moving on, had become a slight addiction. He found himself falling a little bit in love with every one of them, with their lives that included loving him but so much other stuff too. He envied their reality. 

When he eventually got to his room, the other four were waiting inside, sprawled around in the same casual way they had been a thousand times before. Justin's breath had never caught in his throat at the sight of them before, though. 

"Don't tell me you asked." Justin's tone to Chris was one of longsuffering exasperation. 

"No, I asked." Joey answered. "Because last night we were talking and I said it was unwholesome times infinity for you two to be so interested, and Jayce said maybe you weren't perverts after all but actually, well, interested." 

"So he asked Chris a little while ago, who said -" Lance continued the story, interrupted by JC. 

"- 'yeah, cool, Justin wants to watch'." 

"Suave, man, suave." Justin's voice was dry. 

"Don't knock an approach if it gets the job done." Chris grinned. 

"JC, I'm sorry if we, like, offended you with the shit we said. Didn't mean anything by it." Justin explained. "We're just uncouth is all." 

"Thanks. I was being silly about it." JC smiled, then turned as Joey slid down beside him where he sat against the end of the bed, pushing him against the mattress and bringing their lips together lightly. 

"Not silly." Joey assured him before pulling away. 

Justin sat down abruptly in the nearest chair. There was no point even pretending that it didn't do anything to him, didn't send a bolt of aching want down his spine when they kissed properly, long and lush and tender without being soft, JC's hands coming up to rest flat against Joey's back, his neck arching back as he sighed into Joey's mouth. 

Then Lance was there, tongue on Joey's neck in a long swipe that made everyone in the room shiver for a moment, picking up JC's hand and sucking on each of the fingertips teasingly, his eyes locked on Justin as JC made a small urgent sound against Joey's lips. 

When Joey and Lance turned from JC to one another, teeth nipping at collarbones and hands at the nape of the neck, it was so sexy and real and right Justin could actually feel the flush rise in his cheeks. JC was beckoning Chris over, his kiss-bruised lips as pink and full as any girl's as he ground his thigh up between Chris' legs and allowed himself to be kissed hungrily. 

Justin thought they would stay like that, paired off in various combinations, and found he had to swallow thickly at the idea. But somehow the four of them managed to fit in a tangle on the bed - his bed, Justin realised with a jolt, knowing there was no way he could sleep on it now - all reaching arms and rapidly removed clothes and Chris kept making whimpery noises in his high, clear voice as Lance and Joey moved further down his body either side, learning the taste of every inch of his skin. 

JC shifted so he was behind Chris, holding him in the bracket of his legs and dropping his head close to Chris' ear, whispering things Justin couldn't hear. One of JC's hands slid down the warm, sweaty space between his chest and Chris' back, and though Justin couldn't see what happened he could guess as Chris arched up with a strangled cry and JC planted a line of kisses along his shoulder. 

Joey continued his lazy explorations, tongue flicking over Chris' navel before moving lower, and Chris arched again and grabbed at a fistful of the bedspread as if holding on for dear life. Lance caught his hands, held them still, kissed him through the hitching, gasping breaths and then moved to JC, a pink sliver of tongue visible between their mouths. 

Justin shifted in his chair, painfully hard as Chris gave a final jerk, groaning against the line of Lance's chin, and Joey shifted away a little, wiping his mouth as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The room smelt like sex and sweat and humidity. 

JC looked over at him then, eyes dark and glittering, and beckoned. Justin swallowed, swallowed again. He wasn't sure he could make his legs work. 

Lance extricated himself from the tangle and came over to where Justin sat, crouching infront of him. 

"If you want, you can join us." Lance's face was flushed, a wide smile making Justin's heart thud even faster. "It's ok if you don't. Britney and all." 

Justin shook his head, trying to find his words. _Dammit, Timberlake, you're a fucking singer, you can use that voice now can't you?_. 

"I... I called her before. She said whatever happens is cool." 

"Whipped." Chris murmured, laughing against Joey's arm. Justin ignored him, gaze still locked on Lance. 

"You want to, then?" Lance's expression was serious. 

"Yeah." Justin grinned. "Um. Yeah." 

It should have been a little bit funny, a bit awkward at first and then good, physical and enjoyable. That's what it had looked like it would be from the outside. But as Lance pulled Justin's shirt off slowly, snaked an arm around the bare skin of his back and kissed him carefully, Justin was surprised to find it wasn't like that at all. 

It was like worship, the reverence that they'd paid to those naked girls on the video multiplied by a thousandfold. Justin was reminded of his looks every day, but when Joey whispered that Justin was beautiful it was like hearing the word for the first time. Britney liked sex, and with her it was always fun and naughty, but this was something else entirely, carnal spirituality. 

The physical act of love, Justin found himself thinking, a term he and his friends used to snigger over when he was a kid. 

Then he could barely think at all, hands and mouths all over, he didn't even know who was doing what but it didn't matter, the five of them were parts of a whole, and this moment had been coming since the day they'd met Lance and everything had clicked. Love and music are the same thing for musicians, and they'd been making music together for years. Justin wanted to say _Lance, I take it back. Britney gives awful blowjobs. Nothing in my life has ever felt like your mouth_ , but instead of speaking he turned his head and pressed his lips to Chris', Chris who made him laugh and had never treated him like a kid, Chris who tasted like salt and icecream. 

Afterwards, they all shifted around the bed to get comfy, and JC and Joey fought over the remote control, and Lance and Chris told them to shut the fuck up and turn the sound down, Justin thought about the fans and his friends and his lovers, and finally felt like he lived in a world where everything was real. 

 

  



End file.
